Teen strives to help in Cape and beyond

Corey Moore is always ready to give of his time and he's been doing so for more than six years.

The 18-year-old Alternative Education Center and Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center student volunteers with the Salvation Army and The Bridge Outreach Center, a teens ministry in South Cape Girardeau that's affiliated with La Croix United Methodist Church.

"Ever since I was young, I just always wanted to help someone," Moore said. " ... Helping anyone, it makes me feel good. That's why I keep doing it."

He's volunteered for the Salvation Army for six or seven years and had been with The Bridge for three or four years, where he still sometimes volunteers. At The Bridge, Moore said, he helped "keep children in line," and sometimes on Sundays, he helped children with their homework.

For the Salvation Army, he said he's an assistant teens pastor.

"When I was little, we used to go there and have Meals with Friends. They help people out and I like helping people. I thought I'd get involved. I just think that God wants me to do that," said Moore, who has two brothers and five sisters.

Kaye Hood, a La Croix UMC member, has headed the street ministry for South Cape Girardeau for almost nine years. She said The Bridge developed from the street ministry offered in conjunction with several different denominations over the years.

"It's just to meet the people where they're at," Hood said. "We don't try to change them; we just love them where they're at in their walk."

Hood met Moore through The Bridge.

"He and his siblings have kind of grown up out there at the outreach center," she said, adding the family moved about two years ago.

About three years ago, the church sponsored Moore on a mission trip to Swaziland, an experience Hood said opened Moore's eyes and changed his life. She said a friend felt a call to send Moore, even though there wasn't a place for him when the fundraising started.

"We just stepped out in faith and an opening became available," Hood said.

Moore was 15 or 16 when the chance came up for the 11-day trip. He'd never been out of the country and didn't really know what conditions were like in Swaziland.

"I thought it was going to be better than that. The way that they live over there, we have it all over here," and yet people complain about how they "don't get stuff."

"I always think to myself, 'Kids in Africa don't have anything.' What I learned when I was over there [is] that they only live on basically $1 a day. ... I was like, people spend $1 on soda pop. People just spend money and throw away money over here and just don't care about what they do," Moore said.

If it was up to him, Moore said, everyone would take a mission trip. He added that the children he met in Africa seemed to know more about Jesus than he did and when they sang Christian songs and read scripture, it meant something to him.

One of the things his team did in Swaziland was visit a kindergarten-through-second-grade school where they played with the children and gave them some pencils "and they were happy like they just won $1 million."

"That just changed my whole perspective about helping children and sticking with them so they [can] grow in Christ," Moore said.

Now whenever there's someone in town who needs help, Moore's available.

"To see the smiles on their face that say they know that someone is always there to help them," Moore said, is his favorite part.

Mike Bowers, teens director with the Salvation Army, said Moore is punctual, takes instruction well and has grown as a person since he started with the agency.

"He's got a real servant's heart," Bowers said. "He's got a real good attitude about things. Even when you correct him about something he's done wrong, he takes it well. He's willing to learn and change."

Bowers said Moore still does things he shouldn't do -- he's still young after all -- but he's a good influence on the children.

"The fact that they see him helping out and willing to work and having a good attitude. He's grown. In years past, he had more of a quick temper. He's grown out of that. It's good for the children to see that. ... He's struggled in school through the years, but he's making an attempt to do better."

After he graduates from high school, Moore said he plans to continue taking classes at the Career and Technology Center. Eventually, he hopes to become a Salvation Army officer.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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